this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2025
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Sal@mander.xyz
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Friday Night Stargazing 2025-03-07 (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by conditional_soup@lemm.ee to c/astronomy@mander.xyz
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I've got clear skies where I'm at, and I'm ready to try and cross some things off my observation list.

Some targets I'm planning on trying to hit:

  • M79 (this one's been a real PITA, tried about five times and finally just saw a fuzzy little cloud last time I looked)
  • NGC 2419: I think this one's also going to be a huge PITA to starhop to, but I'm up to the challenge.
  • Rosette Nebula
  • M108
  • M97: M108 and M97 seem like they shouldn't be too hard to starhop to, I guess we'll find out.
  • M105: tried to find the Leo triplet once or twice before and got nowhere, but I was on more of a time crunch. I'm hoping with a slower pace and Leo being higher in the sky, I'll be able to pin it down.
  • I always like to peek at Jupiter, and I'll probably snag a look at Trapezium while I can.

Known Conditions:

  • 12" 1520mm f/5 manual dob
  • low mag wide aperture binoculars
  • predicted clear skies
  • ClearDarkSky says Bortle 6 but I think it's closer to 5. In either case, not great, but I've still managed to catch some faint fuzzies from here.
  • I'm going to be using a combination of prepping with Stellarium and a star chart to try and augment my star-hopping. I'll be using an 8x50 RACI to jump from bright naked-eye targets to less visible ones, and then a 2x Barlow/30mm wide field eyepiece to nudge onto target.

Anybody else planning any observing? What's your list look like?

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[–] Fourth@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I biked out to a park yesterday with my big binoculars but I'm still waiting for my tripod to show up so I just checked out the moon some. Thanks for posting.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Pleiades and Hyades should still be fairly high in the sky, and make great targets for binoculars. I'm also VERY partial to the little beehive cluster in Canis Major (go to the first barely visible star down from sirius, along the dog's spine, and move directly right from there). If they're strong enough, the Orion Nebula also makes a great target. The regular beehive cluster is alright; it can be tricky in the city, but you should juuuust be able to see what kinda looks like a faint, blurry star just left of the angle of you make a right angle between Pollux and Procyon. There's also a few binary stars that make good targets right now. You should be able to split the first bright star out from the cup in the handle of the big dipper into three stars.

[–] Fourth@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

Appreciate it, looking forward to future posts from you.